Capture and Hog PC - What next?

Hi, firstly I want to say that I have a passion for lighting but I'm really lacking experience. I'm trying (very hard) to set up a demo show on my PC using Capture and Hog PC as the controller. But, I'm clearly missing something. Here's what is happening:

1. Load Capture and open up the demo file (a pre-prepared project)
2. Load the Hog PC console, the visualiser connectivity application opens and connects (connected and running is shown in the status window).
3. I assign the Hog universes to the universes in Capture (the fixtures are already patched to the Capture universes).

What next?

I was expecting to be able to control the fixtures in Capture using Hog PC but I cannot for the life of me work out how to do this. I'm clearly not understanding something fundamental here. I was expecting the fixture list to be replicated in Hog so that I can control them, is this the case? Do I need to add all of the fixtures into Hog as well as Capture or does it replicate them and all of the patches?

I used a much older version of Capture in the past and you could change the values for each of the channels directly in Capture. You can't do this anymore so it seems like you are mandated to using an external console.

All of the documentation talks about connecting Capture to Hog and vice-versa. I've done this and didn't get any error messages but I just don't know what to do next.

Please help, I'm really enthusiastic, willing to learn, but just can't seem to get over the first hurdle.
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    Hi Matt,

    Don’t know which version of Capture you’re using, but up to Polar 2.1, you can still control brightness and other attributes in the control tab (they’ve changed things in 2.2, which I haven’t tried yet – the control should still there, but in a different place). However, if you have the Hog Connectivity app installed and running, the Capture universes will connect to those by default. When this happens, you lose control of a fixture’s attributes within Capture. To get control back, go to the universes tab, right-click on the relevant universe and select “clear connection with external universe”. You should now be able to control the fixtures within Capture. To reconnect that universe to the Hog, do the same but click on “block automatic connection” (it will be ticked by now, so you’re effectively deselecting that option).

    If you’re using either the Opera or Club demos from the Capture website, these will be fully patched and “ready to go”, as I think you’ve found. However, there is no two-way communication with the Hog of what fixtures are in your Capture project, so you have to manually add the fixture types and quantities to your Hog show file and them patch them all to the right channels. Use the fixture tab in Capture to help you (everything’s listed there).

    Hope that helps. Let us know if you’re still having problems.

    Rob
  • 0
    Thanks Rob. I think that I'm getting somewhere, but I've still got a long way to go.

    I've added a fixture in Capture, patched it to channel 1 in universe A. I've added the same fixture in Hog but I'm unclear how to patch this to the same universe in Capture? What's DP# refer to? I've attempted to patch te fixure and have been able to change the intensity etc but none of these values flow through to Capture.

    Here are some screen shots to show what I've been trying to do:

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/1.jpg

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/2.jpg

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/3.jpg

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/4.jpg
  • 0
    DP# refers to the number of the DMX Processor on the network whose data the connectivity app is listening for. HogPC uses one "virtual DP8000" so the DP# will be 1, but of course you could have several "real" DPs on the network sending DMX, each one identifiable by a number.

    Thanks for posting the pics - so far, so good. Let's just check that everything is patched right in the connectivity app. Open up the connectivity app ("Wholehog DP") window and click on "Patch". This lets you alter which Hog DP and universe your Capture universe will connect to. As you're using "Hog3, Universe 1", look for "#1" in the top left corner of the window. Next to it, make sure "DP#" and "Universe" are both set to "1". Then click "OK".

    Once that's closed, have a look at the connectivity app window. In the Status box, does it say "Running", "Connected" and "Outputs Active". If so, this is good as means the app and the Hog program are talking to each other. If not, try clicking on the "Reconnect" button. You may need to alter the "User Number" to something other than "1". If that doesn't work, try restarting Capture (of course, if you're using the demo version then you'll lose any changes you've made).

    If you're still not getting the desired status indications (as above), then this might be a network adaptor problem (even though you look to be running them on the same machine). Make sure you only have one network adaptor enabled, say Ethernet or wireless, on the computer. The check that Capture and Hog are both using it and that the IP addresses are showing the same.

    Capture:
    Tools > Options > Connectivity (tab) > Preferred network address (double click and select)
    Hog:
    Setup > Control Pnl > Network > HogNet Adaptor (select from the drop down menu)

    Don't know if you know, but if you open up the universe's window in Capture, it will show you what values for each channel are coming through from the hog.

    R
  • 0
    Hi Rob, thanks again for your help. I'm still not getting any joy I'm afraid, and no error messages so maybe it's me not patching everything properly?

    Here's what I'm doing:

    1. Load Capture, the Hog DP also opens and shows this:

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/5.jpg

    2. I then open a new project in Capture and load up Hog PC:

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/6.jpg

    So everything would appear to be connected. I performed the checks that you suggested by looking at the patch window:

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/7.jpg

    That seems to be as you describe.

    I then checked the network connectivity:

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/8.jpg

    matthandy.co.uk/images/hog/9.jpg

    The IP addresses appear to be matched.

    I added a fixture in Capture and Hog and patched it as before. I increased the intensity, tilt and pan in Hog and opened up the universe in Capture. None of the values are being transferred to Capture.

    What else could be wrong? Bear in mind that I've never used a console before so it could be something incredibly basic.

    What else can I check?
  • 0
    Actually, I lie, it works!
    Not sure why it wasn't working before (it's crashed a couple of times).

    Thanks very much for all of your help, now, to figure out how to use Hog :D
  • 0
    You're welcome! I had hours of similar fun years ago getting Hog2 PC to talk to an older version of Capture. Good luck with your Hog learning!

    R
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